Monday, April 26, 2010

Mission Humor on Being Transferred

Hello from the City of Bade Taiwan. This week, I have moved to a new area. I'm still in Taoyuan county. In fact, I have now served in every single area in Taoyuan County. There are 3 sisters in this county...Zhongli Sisters, Taoyuan 1 and 3rd sisters, And Bade and Taoyuan 2 sisters. I just moved from being the 1st and 3rd sisters in the City, to moving over to the side and taking Bade City. Not a far move at all. Bishop Liao drove me this morning here...he's such a great bishop, he's been doing so much to help the work in the Tao 1 ward. I worry about how much he does. I hope he doesn't overdo it. He's just been doing so much, but I really appreciate and respect all the work he has done. Haha. It only took me 6 weeks to figure out what ward was what, then I moved.

My new companion is a Sister Messenger. I think she's really amazing, because she is just a really strong person, and her faith is strong. It's really unique for us to be together for a couple reasons. One is, right after I left Zhongli, she came and was Sister Chen's companion. So she taught a lot of the same people as I did. So we usually can talk about those days :). Also, since Sister Tedjamulia was the coordinating sister, Sister Messenger and I had the opportunity to be companions on exchanges, which as luck would have it, we had a really good day that day. We had a good experience. After exchanges, when we saw her one day, 2 weeks before move calls, Sister Messenger said she decided that Sister Tedjamulia was going to train, and I was going to come to Bade to be her companion, since her current companion at the time is going home to America. She was convinced. And, I kind of started to think it was very possible. We all knew it was a large possibility of my companion training, since she is the only Sister going home this transfer, and thus the oldest sister in our mission, not to mention she's really great and her trainee really goes with her well. Although, that would mean I'd have to leave after only 6 weeks in an area, and that made me a little sad...

But, I started to be convinced of Sister Messengers prophesy too, especially Thursday. We got a phone called Thursday night, 10 minutes before we were going to call and confirm plans for that day...from the Assistants. Of course, because we are both experienced missionaries, we knew that the "Assistants" on our phone meant. But, the Assistant is just, interesting in how he asked...my companion, always wanting to get to the point, said,

"Hello this is Sister Tedjamulia"

"Hello, this is Elder Lysenko, am I speaking to Sister Tedjamulia?"
"Yes this is Sister Tedjamulia"
"Hello, Sister Tedjamulia! This is Elder Lysenko. Do you know what tonight is?"
"What?"
"Today is Thursday, which means, tonight is the night we call out who will train, so Sister Tedjamulia, we would like to ask you to be a trainer..."
"Okay...sounds good"
"Alright, we need you guys to be in the Taipei Jinhua chapel at 10am tomorrow...etc. etc."

Haha, we both laughed a lot at the way he asked her. "Tonight is the night!" And then,we started our trip to Taipei the next morning and became a 3some for a weekend.

She is training a girl from Canada named Sister Lai. She's really cute, she has 2 degrees and left her job as an accountant to come serve a mission. Her parents are from Hong Kong, and she's been exposed to Cantonese...plus she really is diligent and sharp, so even though she's brand new, her Chinese is already amazing! It was really fun to be with them on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

At the training meeting, they say that the new people's area will be, and I knew they were still going to be the Taoyuan Sisters, so starting Thursday after picking up Sister Lai, I knew I was moving, but didn't know where. Then in the about 5 on Friday, we get a call. The phone says "Assistant"...so Sister Tedjamulia hands me the phone...

"Hello, this is Sister Bruno."
"Hello, can I speak to Sister Bruno?"
"This is her, Sister Tedjamulia handed me the phone when you called."
"Great! Sister Bruno, this is Elder Lysenko...I have something to ask you Sister Bruno, but first, are you sitting down?"
"Well, I doubt I would need to be, but as coincidence would have it, yes, yes I am."
"Sister Bruno, I would like to call and ask you to be a Senior companion, would you be willing to accept this calling?" (something about president and them thinking I'd be the perfect person for this, etc. etc.)
"Okay...that's fine...etc. etc."
"Okay, you will find out where you are moving to tonight through your district leader"

Sister Tedjamulia and I said we both needed to record Elder Lysenko's "Fun calls" in our journals. I'll just type it here and call it good. We might have quoted him a couple times. I think we got a kick out how the calls were delivered more than that we got them. So,starting from five, I was pretty certain Bade was where I was moving. Sister Tedjamulia and I discussed it in detail about "my district" just assuming Bade was my district,as we made walks to and from places, since we had no bikes at the time, since we were waiting for Sister Lai's bike to be delivered.

That night, when the district leader, Elder Lu, called and told me I was moving to Bade....I still acted shocked, but I wasn't really. But it was fun how prophesy came true. It doesn't always. When we called Sister Messenger a few days later, she was really excited and told us that "she called it" :). She is really cute and has been saying how excited she is for this transfer. She really feels like God prepared her for it. So, I'm excited to be companions with someone who is so excited to be my companion! It's a lot of fun. I just got here an hour ago, and we have a random lesson at 1 on Preparation day...which isn't the funnest thing to do on Preparation day, but it's okay. That's what us missionaries do sometimes. We meet with people who have no other day to meet for our preparation for the next week.

As for area news, this week was a week of a lot of miracles. We have been having low numbers with new investigators lately, and really doing our best to get the mission "golden standard" the last couple weeks. This last week, we got the goal, and one more! We were really excited, it was the first time we were able to do that in this transfer. I know it was partly due to Sister Lai and her awesome faith and willingness to go out there right from the start. We got stood up for a couple lessons, and went tracking a couple times....Saturday night tracking, people were listening, and a cute mother even let us in and invited us to come back...it was amazing...I always just am amazed when people let us in their doors. I know every time it is such a miracle. It was an awesome experience for me. I spent Sunday night packing, and it felt hard to leave an area after only 6 weeks...because it felt like I barely knew anyone and then I just...disappeared as fast as I appeared...but I know that to every thing there is a reason and purpose...and so, I am excited to get to know this area!

Although, I am not used to it...Heavenly Father is even showing us miracles in the transition. Today, Sister Messenger handed me the phone only moments after I got here, and then, we left about 30 minutes later...and I left the phone in the apartment...so I hope nobody important calls while we are down here...but Sister Messenger is also not used to carrying around the keys, so they were left in the apartment. Before getting in the elevator, I asked her if she had the keys. She freaked out for 2 seconds, before realizing, she had a spare key to the apartment in her bag. She's just not used to having the full set with the church keys. The hilarious thing, is I did that last week when we were on exchanges with Sister Pottle (her companion who left today). Good thing there are 2 keys in both these areas and both of us carried around the spare! In some areas, we've only had 1 key. Heavenly Father loves me! Haha. He loves you guys too. And so do I Keep doing your thing and working hard. I will do my best here, as a Bade Sister.